Despite concerns about the lack of success with video and board game movie adaptations, Hollywood continues to look for new properties to convert to screens big and small. Popular strategy board game Settlers Of Catan saw its rights snapped up in 2015. Now comes word that Sony is making a deal to acquire them and turn the game into a film.
For those not already in the know, the game itself doesn't scream "mythology" or, more importantly, "narrative". Designed by Klaus Teuber and first sold in 1995, The Settlers Of Catan, as Wikipedia succinctly puts it, sees "players in the game represent settlers establishing colonies. Players build settlements, cities, and roads to connect them as they settle the island. The game board representing the island is composed of hexagonal tiles (hexes) of different land types which are laid out randomly at the beginning of each game. Players build by spending resources (brick, lumber, wool, grain, and ore), represented by resource cards; each land type, with the exception of the unproductive desert, produces a specific resource."
Yet producer Gail Katz, who originally made a deal to secure the option at first, still believes it can work, and will team up with The Lego Movie's Dan Lin to push it on to the fast track. "We’re excited to be working with Sony to bring the iconic world of Catan to life," Katz tells Variety. "As huge fans of the game, we’re struck by the endless possibilities of stories that it could inspire. It’s not every day that you have the opportunity to work in a world beloved by millions of people, and expand its story for the screen." Blaise Hemingway is the first person who will take a crack at the script.